The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) administers the Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health (MNOSHA) program. The agency sends out investigators to look into potential safety issues and uses their findings to decide whether to issue citations or impose penalties. Violations range in severity.
MNOSHA considers any safety concern that either has the potential to or results in a worker’s minor injuries as a nonserious violation. The state agency generally imposes fines ranging from $0 to $1,000 to discourage employers from violating safety regulations. Minnesota law does allow investigators to impose fines as high as $7,000 in such instances, though.
State regulators classify any workplace accident that either threatens to cause or leads a worker to suffer severe physical harm or death as a serious violation. Minnesota regulators may fine employers as much as $7,000 for these safety oversights.
If an employer knowingly or intentionally violates state safety standards, they may face a willful violation citation. Investigators will generally seek to collect evidence of the hazardous situation and the employer’s lack of proactiveness to address it before citing them in such instances. A company may have to pay as much as $70,000 for each violation of this sort.
State regulators refer to any nonserious or serious incidents that happen more than once during a single three year period as repeated violations. Each of these may carry up to $70,000 in fines.
If an MNOSHA investigator issues a failure to abate the violation and the matter goes unaddressed, they may impose up to $7,000 in fines per day to punish them for having done so.
Some workplaces are safer than others. The manufacturing and construction spaces are notoriously dangerous compared to others. Minnesota regulators impose fines on companies for violations in hopes that they’ll encourage them to minimize the dangers that workers face. Many don’t, though, and their employees get seriously hurt or die. A workplace safety attorney in Sauk Rapids could help you recover the compensation you deserve if you were injured on the job here.
